"Well written, funny and wistful" - Paul Linford; "He is indeed the Lib Dem blogfather" - Stephen Tall"Jonathan Calder holds his end up well in the competitive world of the blogosphere" - New Statesman"A prominent Liberal Democrat blogger" - BBC Radio 4 Today programme"Charming and younger than I expected" - Wartime Housewife

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Six of the Best 220

"As a proud Englishman I feel outraged that Welsh and Scottish MPs can enforce laws on the people of England, whilst vice versa isn’t possible. I believe that an English Parliament is the only way ahead, allowing English people to vote for parliamentarians to make decisions that directly affect them; on health, on education and on economic development." Neil Woollcott makes a robust contribution to the debate on Scottish independence.

And Landon Thomas Jr, in the New York Times, offers another perspective on the future of the United Kingdom that is seldom heard: "This year Wales... is expected to receive about £14.6 billion, or $22.6 billion, from the central government. The money is used to cover what Wales cannot raise itself from taxes and borrowing. Most people do not think of Britain - home to many of Europe’s most outspoken eurosceptics - as having a monetary union. But it does, and these money transfers are the essence of what makes Britain’s common currency a success in knitting together a collection of regions and historically separate countries with different languages, cultures and economic profiles."

The case of Stephen Hester shows that bonuses are a reward for power, not performance, argues Stumbling and Mumbling.